Hajime Owari is a young woman of twenty years who becomes a live-in part-time worker at Shikada Dagashi, the rural candy shop that serves as the series' primary setting. Her background is marked by a series of false starts and personal reinventions. Before arriving at the shop, she was a student at a prestigious university in Chiyoda, where she studied political science and economics with excellent grades. Despite her academic success, she ultimately decided to drop out, finding no real connection to her studies or the people there. Following her departure from university, she took a job at a newly opened convenience store chain called Town Mart, but her chronic inability to wake up in the morning led to her being fired during her training period. Homeless and out of options, she appeared at Shikada Dagashi as a last resort, begging to be hired. Kokonotsu Shikada, the teenage son of the shop's owner, reluctantly agreed to take her on under the unusual arrangement that her entire salary would go toward paying for her room and board.

In terms of personality, Hajime presents a contradictory but endearing mix of traits. She is exceptionally laid-back to the point of being perceived as lazy or a disaster waiting to happen, openly admitting to her tardiness and poor work habits without much apparent shame. She has a habit of speaking her mind directly, often without considering the effect her words might have on others. Her speech is also marked by a peculiar verbal tic, adding a soft "-ssu" to the end of her sentences. Despite her careless exterior, she is not unintelligent. She possesses a vast and eclectic body of knowledge that covers art history, such as her ability to identify Cubist influences in candy mascots, and cultural trivia. She is also noted to be kind-hearted, rarely speaking ill of others, and possesses a surprising amount of empathy. She has a tendency to fall asleep anywhere and becomes easily intoxicated after consuming very little alcohol.

Hajime's primary role in the story is to serve as a new member of the core cast, bringing fresh energy and challenges to the Shikada Dagashi. Her arrival helps to fill a void and shift the dynamic, and she becomes a collaborator with Kokonotsu as he tries to manage and modernize the shop. Her motivation is simple and practical at first: she needs a place to live and a source of income. However, as her situation stabilizes, her deeper motivation appears to be a search for a place where she belongs. Having failed at university and her previous job, she finds an unexpected home with the Shikada family. This is highlighted during a Christmas celebration, where she initially feels she should leave the family to their own traditions, but Kokonotsu insists she stay, affirming that she has a place with them.

Her key relationship is with Kokonotsu Shikada, who is technically her manager despite being several years her junior. The two develop a friendly, sibling-like dynamic, with Hajime often acting as a laid-back older sister figure. She teases him about his love life and lacks any formal sense of hierarchy, but she also takes her duties as a shopkeeper and delivery person seriously, driving a truck to make deliveries around the area. There are occasional moments where both become aware of the other as a member of the opposite sex, leading to brief, awkward flustered moments, but these are consistently resolved by reaffirming their familial bond. Her relationship with You Shikada, the true owner of the shop, is less pronounced; their similar relaxed personalities generally result in a lack of serious conflict, though the proper working order is often lost since Hajime was hired by Kokonotsu while You was hospitalized.

Throughout the series and in supplementary material, significant development reveals the roots of her abilities and insecurities. A special chapter titled Itookashi sheds light on her past, showing that at eighteen, she was a promising manga artist who nearly made her official debut. She possessed immense artistic talent, but she lacked the personal discipline to sustain a professional career. She would neglect sleep and food while drawing, leading to a total collapse of her health. Her concerned editor was forced to stop her serialization to protect her wellbeing, though she left the door open for Hajime to return someday. This experience explains her later anxieties about her own future and her surprising competence when she helps Kokonotsu with his own manga, taking on tasks like toning and providing sharp critiques on the likelihood of his success.

Hajime possesses a number of notable abilities that contrast sharply with her absent-minded persona. She is highly intelligent, having scored over 700 on the TOEIC test, and is proficient in web programming languages such as HTML and JavaScript. She once created a website for Shikada Dagashi, though she got carried away by adding useless but fun features like scrolling comments and, on a different occasion, designed a mock-up that resembled an adult website as a joke, which led to the project being cancelled. She is also remarkably resourceful; when she forgot to order a batch of super balls for the shop's young customers, she avoided an immediate crisis by using household commodities and her scientific knowledge to manufacture functional, handmade versions on the spot. These skills, combined with her art training from her failed manga career, make her a surprisingly capable and versatile individual, even if she remains a hopeless case when it comes to punctuality and professional conduct.